Mark

 

Lawler

Mark is Professor of Digital Health at Queen’s University Belfast. He chairs the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, a global initiative which looks at cancer outcomes across the world and was senior author on a Lancet Oncology paper that highlighted the role of National Cancer Control Plans in delivering optimal cancer care. He was Chair of the Lancet Oncology European Groundshot Commission, which produced the most comprehensive analysis to date of cancer research activity in Europe, which is informing cancer research and policy across the continent.

Mark co-leads Health Data Research UK’s Big Data for Complex Diseases Driver Programme which has a major focus on the use of cancer data. He is Scientific Director of DATA-CAN, the UK’s Health Data Research Hub for Cancer. He is the Scientific Lead of the European Cancer Organisation’s European Cancer Pulse, which captures data on cancer inequalities across Europe. 

Marks pioneering work on Covid-19 and cancer received the Royal College of Physicians Excellence in Patient Care Award and the prestigious European Communique Award.  His team won the HDR-UK Impact of the Year Award for providing the crucial intelligence informing a change in policy for treating colorectal cancer. Mark is a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Lancet Oncology, the leading cancer journal.

Mark was the architect of the European Cancer Patient’s Bill of Rights, a catalyst for change and an empowerment tool for cancer patients, for which he received the 2018 European Health Award, which specifically rewards work with pan-European impact. He co-led the development of the European Code of Cancer Practice, a European Cancer Organisation (ECO) initiative  which articulates what people should expect from their cancer health system. He co-leads ECO’s focussed Topic Network on Emergencies and Crises and co-authored a Manifesto on improving cancer care in conflict-impacted populations in The Lancet.    

Mark was one of the leadership involved in developing and launching a radical new data-informed UK plan for cancer research and cancer care in the House of Commons, Westminster. In January 2024, he provided the crucial evidence on the need to re-establish a National Cancer Plan  to the Health and Social Care Select Committee in the House of Commons, which was a key deciding factor in the Secretary of State for Health committing to a National Cancer Plan.  On World Cancer Day 2025,  he co-led a campaign  to ensure a big, brave and ambitious cancer strategy, data-informed and with patients at the centre, which he delivered as a petition to Number 10 Downing Street. 

On a lighter note, Mark is a devotee of the famous Irish writer James Joyce and performs an acclaimed One Man Show “Doctoring James Joyce,” treading the boards many times in Dublin and Belfast, but also in Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam to date, which explores not only the authors writing, but also the scientific and medical aspects of his work, in stories, anecdotes, songs and doggerel verse.